An augmented reality (AR) device can be used to generate and display data in addition to an image captured with the device. For example, AR provides a live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g., adding computer vision and object recognition), the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive. Device-generated (e.g., artificial) information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.
AR devices can also be used to capture color information of an image of a real world physical object. However, when attempting to recognize or identify color values, the device can be overwhelmed with the resulting computational load. The number of color value computations increases with the resolution of the captured image, specificity of the color space being identified, and many other factors. Thus, the AR device may not have sufficient computational resources to extract the color value of every pixel and further render three-dimensional models of virtual objects and complex animations, especially when the computation all happens on the local device.